Hello.
This is my first post here.
What I want to do is to host a web site at home.
And I really need your help to make my setup to work.

I have a new Mac mini server with Lion Server on it.
I have a static public Ip. And I also have a registered domaine name.
I want to make this Mac act as Web Server + Dns Server for a web hosting.
And it is behind router.
I know it is not an easy task, and that it is a lot easier to do it with an external Dns service,---> But I want to lern to do it.
I am newbie to all the hosting thing, but I have spended already a couple month in trying to make it to work but with no success .
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So what I need is a step by step instructions how to configure a Web +Dns server on lion server behind router.
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Couple notes:
I already checked if I can rich my server from Internet via it's Ip,---- and it is ok.
Also I already opened a ports for Web and Dns on my router, and forwarded them to a internal static Ip of my server.

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Couple questions :
1) About host name ...
When I do the initial setup(reinstall) of the server. I need to give it an Internet Host Name....
Let's say that my registered domaine is example.com, and I give the server an sub domaine : ns1.example.com as a host name.
My registrar do not provide an Dns servers registration option, it has only an option to add Dns servers info to the domain . So what I did is adding the
ns1.example.com + ip of the server as the Dns server of example.com......

Is it anouf for the sub domain ns1.example.com to be registered as a Dns server ?
Is it ok to use it as the internet host name for my server ?

Log into your account from who ever hosts your domain and look for DNS settings or somewhere that says "Change where domain points to" then enter your external ip address there.
It's not something you set on your computer but online.
Hope this helps, I'm a bit of a newbie also but that is how I was able to get my domain to point to my Mac Mini (server) and I am able to host webs sites, vpn and other nice things.

Log into your account from who ever hosts your domain and look for DNS settings or somewhere that says "Change where domain points to" then enter your external ip address there.
It's not something you set on your computer but online.
Hope this helps, I'm a bit of a newbie also but that is how I was able to get my domain to point to my Mac Mini (server) and I am able to host webs sites, vpn and other nice things.

Click to expand...

I concur.

Also, to check your DNS is working properly, while you are "outside" and not behind your router try to ping "www.example.com" and see if the result is your external static IP address. If it is, then it's a good DNS sign. You can also use lookup's (e.g. in the Network Utility application).

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